Opeth

By Request, Part 1 - Orchid:

  • Total voters
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MrKnickerbocker said:
he just sounds like he's trying too hard to be Dio.
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Shouldn't everyone?

I've never heard of Solitude Aeturnus before, but both of those covers are pretty solid. Is this the type of stuff they normally do? Also, perhaps Dio is just one of the guy's biggest influences. Also keep in mind that it's pretty hard to sing Dio material without giving it some kind of Dio inflection; it risks sounding quite sterile otherwise.

That said, I agree about adding personal style to covers. Otherwise, what's the point, really?
 
MrKnickerbocker said:
Both of those covers are impeccably recorded, but do absolutely nothing new to the songs. There are a couple changes in vocal inflections, but otherwise, it's a direct copy. While quite admirable, I wish they took more chances and added their own style to it. That said, I doubt you'll find another cover of "Hallowed" with a vocal that good. The "H&H" one is a little too silly for me, not sure why, he just sounds like he's trying too hard to be Dio.
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That's mostly why I don't usually care for covers, especially of classics like Hallowed H&H. Most of the time they just come out as carbon copies of the originals. Iced Earth is particularly guilty of this too, since they sound quite a bit like Maiden anyway. The one flaw on Horror Show is their cover of Transylvania.

Edit: Oh and Ghost Of Freedom. I forgot that embarrassment existed.
 
Detective Beauregard said:
Also, perhaps Dio is just one of the guy's biggest influences. Also keep in mind that it's pretty hard to sing Dio material without giving it some kind of Dio inflection; it risks sounding quite sterile otherwise.

That said, I agree about adding personal style to covers. Otherwise, what's the point, really?
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True, but you'll never out-Dio Dio. Just like you'll never out-Bruce Bruce. It's better to just sing it the way you sing it, to the best of your ability, make it yours. But, I don't know that band, so maybe that is how that guy normally sounds.

Mosh said:
The one flaw on Horror Show is their cover of Transylvania.

Edit: Oh and Ghost Of Freedom. I forgot that embarrassment existed.
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Yeah, their Transylvania just sounds like a remastered version of Maiden's. Same exact thing, better recording technology.

Ghost of Freedom just doesn't fit on Horror Show. It also falls into the "I Died for You"/"Watching Over Me"/every other half-ballad IE song trap, which is to say that they sound exactly the same and follow the exact same structure. Ghost of Freedom would have been better suited to The Glorious Burden.

No wait, the obligatory track spot on that album was taken up by some song that sounds just like Ghost of Freedom, but is about an eagle or something, right?
 
Not only is Ghost Of Freedom out of place, it's just bad. One of their worst, most cringe-worthy songs. That Crying Eagle thing is bad but the rest of the album is rather dull too (except Gettysburg and Declaration Day). GoF sticks out like a sore thumb on an otherwise awesome album. Barlow ought to be ashamed.
 
Detective Beauregard said:
Shouldn't everyone?

I've never heard of Solitude Aeturnus before, but both of those covers are pretty solid. Is this the type of stuff they normally do? Also, perhaps Dio is just one of the guy's biggest influences. Also keep in mind that it's pretty hard to sing Dio material without giving it some kind of Dio inflection; it risks sounding quite sterile otherwise.

That said, I agree about adding personal style to covers. Otherwise, what's the point, really?
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Solitude Aeturnus is a doom metal band from the USA and this singer, Robert Lower, is one of the best singers of the whole metal scene. He is also in Candlemass (another doom metal band, from Sweden, one of the oldest) since some years. Note the doomy passage in Hallowed from 4:16.

The editions are for the rest quite true to the originals, but that happens regularly with covers. I posted them because the singing stands out. It's really difficult to sing like this. Barlow is good too of course.

Outdoing the original artist is not the number one objective. Solitude Aeturnus just have the greatest respects for the old masters and they showed what they're made of.

Detective, here's a Solitude Aeturnus song:
Note the awesome guitar solos as well.
 
NEVER! Opeth shall only be converted by Mikael himself!

Back on topic...

What do you guys think Opeth's next album is going to sound like? It's mostly speculation at this point, but I'm still quite excited to see where they're gonna go after Heritage. I've read multiple interviews where Mikael talks about a song he's written called "Goblin", inspired by the band Goblin (who I've never heard), but it sounds rather heavy.

My prediction: heavier than Heritage, no growls.
 
Forostar, that's a pretty good song you posted. I've never heard a doom metal song before, and am not sure what gives it a "doom" quality; it sounds progressive to me.

Mosh said:
We should maybe take this to the covers thread.
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I'm all for this. No point in de-Opething this thread anymore!
 
MrKnickerbocker said:
NEVER! Opeth shall only be converted by Mikael himself!

Back on topic...

What do you guys think Opeth's next album is going to sound like? It's mostly speculation at this point, but I'm still quite excited to see where they're gonna go after Heritage. I've read multiple interviews where Mikael talks about a song he's written called "Goblin", inspired by the band Goblin (who I've never heard), but it sounds rather heavy.

My prediction: heavier than Heritage, no growls.
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Pretty hard to tell at this point, they could go either way really. A metal album with no growls is fine by me.
 
MrKnickerbocker said:
NEVER! Opeth shall only be converted by Mikael himself!

What do you guys think Opeth's next album is going to sound like? It's mostly speculation at this point, but I'm still quite excited to see where they're gonna go after Heritage. I've read multiple interviews where Mikael talks about a song he's written called "Goblin", inspired by the band Goblin (who I've never heard), but it sounds rather heavy.

My prediction: heavier than Heritage, no growls.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure if they'd do a growl-less album right after Heritage. My guess? Opeth in space!

The name Opeth was taken from the novel Sunbird, by the North Rhodesian author Wilbur Smith, and was originally spelled Opet. In the book, Opet is the name of the location of an ancient empire which translates to "City of the Moon" (in the book's fictional language.)

FYI, Goblin is an Italian progressive rock band that did soundtracks for horror movies back in the '70s. It's interesting stuff...

 
I like Goblin, not sure what an Opeth impression of Goblin would sound like though.
 
Forostar said:
Robert Lower, is one of the best singers of the whole metal scene. He is also in Candlemass (another doom metal band, from Sweden, one of the oldest) since some years.
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Lowe* was fired from Candlemass last year. Mats Levén (a much better singer IMO) replaced him. Not that Lowe isn't a good singer, but Mats is one of the best singers in the genre :) Lowe used to read the lyrics from paper during concerts, so that certainly contributed to his firing.
 
I missed all that! Thanks for the update! Rob Halford wasn't fired from Priest for that reason. Not yet at least. :)
 
Having to read lyrics on stage is a bit of a petty reason to fire a guy. I never notice when Halford does it. But speaking of that, since this is the Opeth thread, when I saw them a few months ago Mikael had quite a few pages of lyrics on the floor next to his setlist. I'm pretty far sighted so I couldn't make out any of the words, but I suppose it was probably Demon Of The Fall, since that's an older one. Obviously I didn't notice when he actually had to read the lyrics.
 
There's a difference, guys. Lowe was actually holding papers in his hands while singing. Halford at least doesn't make it that obvious :P
 
For a band like Opeth, I don't find it strange that Mikael would have to read the lyrics. Some of their songs have so many lyrics, with such little melodic sensibility, that it would be rather hard to remember them all. "Oh right, that's where I grunt this instead of this."

Still, any band reading lyrics on stage drives me crazy. For the old guys, I get it, but it's still distracting. It makes people a slave to the teleprompter and then they just read instead of performing. I don't know how Bruce remembers all of Maiden's lyrics, especially since some songs are so wordy.
 
Maybe he's just been doing it so long that remembering lyrics is easy for him. But yea some of those songs are pretty wordy, especially the older ones.
 
I'm almost sure Mikael uses an English dictionary as he's writing the lyrics. He has fluent English, but some of his word choices are really interesting. Many words I hadn't heard of before listening to Opeth.
 
Wouldn't be surprised, though some of the more recent material sounds a bit more natural.
 
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